El Verdugo

El Verdugo is a tragic Nouvelle of Honore de Balzac published in 1830 in the review the Fashion , then in volume with the Gosselin editions in 1831. It appears in the philosophical Études of the human Comedy .

Characters

Commercial, young Victor ordering Napoleonean army.
Clara, girl of the marquis de Léganès with Menda; she has feelings, which are reciprocal, for Victor.
Marquis de Léganès, Spanish lord of Menda.
Juanito, wire of the marquis and brother of Clara; it is him which will be “el Verdugo”: the torturer, in Spanish.

Topic

During the Napoleonean war of Spain, the French commander Commercial Victor and his troops have the role of supervising the Spanish small village of Menda. When this one revolts, Marchand will have the safe life thanks to the assistance of Clara, the girl of the marquis de Léganès, sovereign of Menda. Rising is repressed with ferocity and the family of Léganès is condemned to death. Merchant obtains from his superior the life of one of wire of Léganès if this one agrees to be the torturer of its family. Pushed by his/her father, Juanito accepts and carries out one by members of its family. When is with the turn of Clara to be decapitated by his/her brother, Victor proposes the marriage to him to have the safe life. She refuses. When it does not remain any more but in Juanito than to carry out his mother, it cracks. The latter noticing it, commits suicide by crashing to pieces the head on a rock, to shorten lasts it mission of his/her son. Juanito will be able to thus safeguard the family of Léganès by having descendants.

Random links: